Although the Bengals picked up Kirkpatrick's fifth-year option last season, his time in Cincinnati could be over unless they're willing to pay up. Kirkpatrick had a decent 2016 campaign -- 46 tackles, three interceptions -- and coach Marvin Lewis said in January he'd like to keep the former Alabama star around.

"What we do with a lot of our carryover (salary-cap) room is we look at guys that are coming up into the future and we normally start those discussions in the summertime and we'll see if we can get some things done in advance with any of the players who are coming up, whether that's Tyler (Eifert) or (Kevin) Zeitler or (Dre) Kirkpatrick or Gio (Bernard) or whoever.

"We do reserve a portion of our carryover room just for that and so we can minimize the number of (unrestricted free agents) that we have. We've got a large number this year and it's going to be a challenge for us. We'll be proactive with some of the young players that will be coming up in the next year or two."

Kirkpatrick is ranked No. 41 on NFL.com's Top 101 Free Agents and is the No. 5 cornerback on the list. It shouldn't be long before the NFL world finds out if Kirkpatrick will be playing for a new team in 2017.